Robert Zemeckis

With a flair for special effects and an impressive track record for eliciting strong performances, director Robert Zemeckis emerged from the University of Southern California's film school to become a...
Read More...

After a rough couple of weeks in which Robert Zemeckis' most recent production tanked at the box office and had his upcoming remake of Yellow Submarine canceled, the Oscar winning filmmaker is taking note of these debacles and will finally contemplate a return to live-action projects. Deadline reports that he's in talks with Paramount Pictures to helm Flight, a character study revolving around a commercial airline pilot named Whip Whitaker whose plane almost crashes but is saved thanks to his heroic skills. Instantly hailed as a hero, an investigation into the cause of the incident reveals that he was flying under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The story then follows the pilot's journey as he is encouraged to embrace his new reputation that he thinks he doesn't deserve, all while the pilot's union and airline try to keep the facts under cover because of the high stakes involved.
John Gatins, who wrote the Zemeckis-produced Real Steel (and was just hired to script a sequel to the October release), penned the screenplay and wanted to direct, but now that the man behind Forrest Gump and Contact is interested in the project Paramount is hotly pursuing him. Denzel Washington is loosely attached to play the pilot, and I'd be very interested to see the two-time Oscar-winner return to more grounded fare (I don't know about you, but if I see another Tony Scott/Denzel Washington collaboration I'll probably throw myself in front of one of the trains at the center of their last two films). Likewise, this would be the first time that Zemeckis would step on a physical set in a decade after helming performance-capture pictures like The Polar Express and Beowulf; an enticing prospect in and of itself.
Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are producing. A decision is expected soon as the studio hopes to begin filming later this year for a possible late 2012 release.
Source: Deadline

Now I know that gnomes have been kind to Walt Disney Pictures, with Gnomeo and Juliet taking off at the box office this February, but that doesn't mean that Sony Pictures Animation should jump on the bandwagon. Especially if the studio plans on letting Robert Zemeckis anywhere near a project that will feature cutesy animated characters. The Oscar winning filmmaker's last effort, the atrocious Mars Needs Moms, bombed right out of the gate causing Disney to boot him from the lot and cancel his developing Yellow Submarine remake.
Now SPA wants him to join their ranks with an adaptation of Chuck Sambuchino's novel "How To Survive A Garden Gnome Attack", which is in the vein of "How To Survive The Robot Uprising" and "The Zombie Survival Guide" in that it details a plan to outlast the invasion of the titular characters. The adaptation is described as an R-rated, live-action/CG-hybrid budgeted in the $20 million-$30 million range. He'll produce, but hasn't committed to directing as he's weighing his options carefully. No writer has been hired yet.
It's a wise move for SPA to keep costs down on this one, because Zemeckis is just not the reliable moneymaker he once was. As a modestly budgeted novelty flick, it could work but personally I'm done with him as a filmmaker until he returns to more grounded fare. He's often worked in genre, having helmed classics like the Back to the Future trilogy, Romancing The Stone and What Lies Beneath, but I long for the days of Forrest Gump, Contact and Castaway. This farce is not worth his time, Sony's or yours.
Source: Variety

In each and every film you watch, certain aspects of the production stand out more than others. Sometimes the movie just looks incredible and you’ll leave the theater gushing over the cinematography. In other cases, you’ll be quoting the film days after seeing it and will always think of how good the writing was; nay, how integral it was to its quality, almost as if it was a character unto itself. All the same, a narrative theme can be the driving force in a motion picture, especially in science fiction. This week’s highly anticipated release of Summit Entertainment’s Source Code has brought to mind a handful of past projects in which time-travel (or time-looping, as is the case in Duncan Jones’ new movie) plays a role as significant as its director or star.
Back to the Future: Perhaps the best-known and most beloved time travel film ever, Robert Zemeckis’ breakthrough motion picture wouldn’t exist without the theory of time travel. The fate of an entire family is at stake in this ‘80s staple, making Marty McFly’s ability to go back to the ’50s to save them paramount to its plot.
Twelve Monkeys: In Terry Gilliam’s mind-mending movie, the fate of the entire world is in the hands of a lone time traveler. James Cole (Bruce Willis) is tasked with gathering information about a disease that wiped out humanity and time travel not only plays a key role in the main story, but is also used to define the enigmatic protagonist.
The Terminator: The fight for the future is waged in the present (2029 A.D. to the resistance) and past in James Cameron's unprecedented neo-noir thriller, in which the question of whether or not humanity's fate can be altered is at the heart of the story. The great conundrum of time-travel -- the debate over whether the chicken or egg came first -- is ambiguously explored in the film, making for an incredibly existential action flick.
Bill &amp; Ted’s Excellent Adventure: It's the Wyld Stallions, the musical collective comprised of wannabe rock star's Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan, that's in jeopardy in Stephen Herek's sophomore feature. The dimwitted duo use an extra-dimensional phone booth to navigate the circuits of time to retrieve iconic historical figures for their senior thesis, a plot point that wouldn't have been possible to explore if not for the wondrous notion of time-travel. If ever there was a film developed solely for the comedic and visual possibilities that time-travel suggests, it's this one. Of course Alex Winter wishes that he could travel back to 1989, when he still had a promising career...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: There's no element of science fiction that the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise hasn't explored. In the third sequel to 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the team heads back to the late 20th century to rescue some humpback whales (I kid you not). The film depicts a human culture clash between a "modern" working gal and a futuristic Starfleet captain while contrasting the next-gen production design familiar to sci-fi films with some refreshingly natural visuals, all used to comment on contemporary issues (some dated by 21st century standards).
Groundhog Day: If there's one thing that Bill Murray and Jake Gyllenhaal can agree on anything, it's that being caught in a time loop is a pain in the ass. In this hit comedy, Murray plays a repulsive TV weatherman who must relive the events of Groundhog Day '93 over and over again until he makes things right in his life. There's not a lot of travel, per se, but it's a dark tale chronicling a cosmic joke involving the space-time continuum, meaning it is right at home in this list.

The Walt Disney/Robert Zemeckis connection has been terminated. The Hollywood Reporter says that late yesterday the Mouse House decided to permanently dock the Oscar-winning director's planned remake of The Beatles' beloved 1968 film Yellow Submarine, which was announced in August 2009 before his take on A Christmas Carol failed to make miraculous amounts of cash. On the heels of a $6.9 million opening weekend for his latest production, the sci-fi family film Mars Needs Moms, the studio has apparently had enough of his shenanigans.
It's no surprise, really. In May 2010, after the grim reality that A Christmas Carol was an official flop became clear, Disney shut down Zemeckis' ImageMovers shingle and was letting the fate of Yellow Submarine rest on the commercial performance of Mars Needs Moms, which cost $150 million just to produce. Two back-to-back big-budget bombs for any filmmaker is enough to cause panic, and the fact that he couldn't get the Beatles' heirs in a room for a key presentation of test footage after a canceled date in December (which was never rescheduled) just compounded the negativity. Disney is simply acting according to procedure with today's move.
Zemeckis' Yellow Submarine was to employ the same performance capture technology he'd used on The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol and was set to star Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell. Though getting kicked off of the Disney lot is a major setback, THR notes that the filmmaker is now free to shop the project around to other studio's, though I can't imagine any company biting after the rocky returns on his recent films. Zemeckis is said to have fled Tinsel Town for Montana, where he'll regroup and decide what his next move is.
My two cents for Mr. Z? Enough with the mo-cap movies. Get back to live-action filmmaking. This is the guy who made Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and Contact. The Polar Express was good and all and I love Beowulf, but the process is just too expensive to justify putting all that energy into. The longer he stays in animated territory, the more clout he loses. There's a wealth of good scripts out there just dying to get produced; a man with as much pedigree as Zemeckis should look to reinvent himself once again as this performance-capture chapter of his career comes to a close.
Source: THR

Sony’s sci-fi alien adventure Battle: Los Angeles created a solid weekend of box office mayhem with a better-than-expected debut of $36 million that put it at the top of the chart. Feeling more like a summer-style blockbuster than a mid-March offering, the film stars Aaron Eckhart as the leader of a Marine platoon with the unenviable task of fending off a massive offensive by super angry aliens hell-bent on colonizing Earth. Boasting big budget effects and relentless military vs. aliens action, young males will be particularly drawn to the multi-plex looking for plenty of action and lots of on-screen destruction. Harkening back to the sci-fi Earth invasion movies of the late 1950’s, Battle: Los Angeles puts a modern spin on a tried and true genre.
Paramount had a solid $38.1 million number one debut last weekend with its animated Rango featuring the voice of Johnny Depp. Realizing the typical animated feature second weekend drop of around 40%, a second weekend gross of $23.05 million was delivered by the family film. Solid mid-week grosses of around $2 million demonstrate continued interest in the film which will wind up with a domestic total of $68.7 million by the end of the weekend.
In a big screen version of the classic fairy tale, Warner Bros.’ Red Riding Hood casts the lovely Amanda Seyfried as the heroine of the film and the always riveting Gary Oldman in yet another villainous turn. With obvious appeal to young females, director Catherine Hardwicke certainly knows the territory having directed the massively successful first installment of the Twilight franchise. Featuring an attractive young cast and enough young lust, romance and adventure to excite the target audience, this Red Riding Hood generated $14.1 million this weekend.
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in Universal’s The Adjustment Bureau which opened last weekend with a solid $21.1 million, realized a fairly modest drop this weekend that earned it $11.5 million in this weekend’s box office contest. A unique hybrid of romance and sci-fi, the film based on a Philip K. Dick short story, puts a fantastical spin on the classic boy meets girl scenario. Hovering in second place in the mid-week contest with grosses in the $1.5 million range, the film adjusted itself into a fourth place finish and total gross that is pushing $40 million by Sunday night.
The red planet called Mars makes its debut in the top five as Disney’s Mars Needs Moms! earned $6.8 million. Opening wide on Friday and including 211 IMAX screens, the 3-D animated family film took kids and their parents on an otherworldly animated adventure. Featuring the voices of Seth Green and Joan Cusack and produced by Robert Zemeckis, the film attempted to grab family audiences who up until recently had few options for appropriate entertainment at the local movie theater.
Check out our exclusive Mars Needs Moms!-themed comic strip from Francesco Marciuliano. Francesco writes the internationally-syndicated comic strip “Sally Forth” and the webcomic “Medium Large.” He was the head writer for the PBS series “SeeMore’s Playhouse,” for which one of his episodes won two 2007 Daytime Emmys. He currently writes for the Onion News Network.
Weekend Box-Office
Top Movies - For Weekend of March 11, 2011
Movie Weekend Gross Total to Date
1 Battle: Los Angeles (PG-13) $36.0M $36.0M
2 Rango (PG) $23.0M $68.6M
3 Red Riding Hood (PG-13) $14.1M $14.1M
4 The Adjustment Bureau (PG-13) $11.5M $38.5M
5 Mars Needs Moms (PG) $6.8M $6.8M
6 Hall Pass (R) $5.1M $34.9M
7 Beastly (PG-13) $5.1M $16.98M
8 Just Go WIth It (PG-13) $4.0M $93.98M
9 The King's Speech (R) $3.6M $129.1M
10 Gnomeo and Juliet (G) $3.5M $89.0M

Disney's new movie Mars Needs Moms suffers from a classic mistake: focusing too much on one aspect of a production -- and in this case it's the visuals. The result is an unbalanced mess that looks terrific but doesn't have enough substance to leave the audience with anything more to "ooh" and "ah" at other than all the pretty colors. As we all know from that one really really hot girl/guy in high school who's now overweight and working a dead-end job looks can only go so far.
Adapted from the children's novel by Berkeley Breathed and directed by Simon Wells Mars Needs Moms follows Milo (acted by Seth Green voiced by Seth Robert Dusky) as he chases after his mother who's been stolen by Martians just a few hours after he told her he'd be better off without her. Once he arrives on Mars (by sneaking on the ship) he meets Gribble (Dan Fogler) who informs him of his problem: the Martians are ruled by a ruthless queen-like Supervisor (Mindy Sterling) who's decided that the hatchlings (babies who sprout from the ground like vegetables) must be divided: all males are thrown away into the dump and the females are raised by "nanny-bots" -- robots programmed by the "discipline" energy of good moms like Milo's from Earth. Milo and Gribble buddy-up and with the help of a rebel Martian named Ki (Elisabeth Harnois) the three of them venture to save Milo's mom before it's too late.
And venture on they do. Coming from producer Robert Zemeckis and utilizing the same motion-capture technology as The Polar Express A Christmas Carol and Beowulf Mars Needs Moms rushes forward embracing its visually stunning universe without taking a moment to stop and breathe. The characters never have a chance to do anything significant that would make the audience think they're substantial or important -- especially Gribble whom the filmmakers really really want us to care for. On top of that it relies on a plot line that we've all seen before and instead of diving into the parts that made it interesting (like the question of why men were thrown in the garbage and not women) it skims safely along the surface doing its best to avoid anything deeper than basic themes.
But that may be a little too picky. After all the movie is just supposed to be a fun little child's tale right? In that vein it succeeds. We feel like we're on an amusement park ride thanks to Ki's vibrant '60s flower-power paintings and the adventures on the Red Planet's surface. Even the moments that aren't super fast-paced present environments that are beautiful. Plus Fogler's performance as Gribble (as Jack Black-esque as it was) gives us some fun enjoyable moments and one-liners that kids will no doubt love.
Yet at the same time Mars Needs Moms' visuals aren't all glorious. In fact some hurt the plot because frankly the humans aren't animated very well. There's no life in their eyes. Simple movements like walking look awkward and too often characters facial expressions don't match the urgency found in their voices. Instead the animation just turns all the characters into weird cartoony versions of themselves that look so "almost human" they appear fake. And as always it's difficult to care for fake people.
Children will definitely enjoy Mars Needs Moms but from a filmmaking standpoint Wells really missed an opportunity to deliver something other than neat visuals and one-liners.

Sony’s sci-fi alien adventure Battle: Los Angeles is poised for a solid weekend of box office mayhem as an expected debut in the high $20 million range will put it at the top of the chart. Feeling more like a summer-style blockbuster than a mid-March offering, the film stars Aaron Eckhart as the leader of a Marine platoon with the unenviable task of fending off a massive offensive by super angry aliens hell-bent on colonizing Earth. Boasting big budget effects and relentless military vs. aliens action, young males will be particularly drawn to the multi-plex looking for plenty of action and lots of on-screen destruction. Harkening back to the sci-fi Earth invasion movies of the late 1950’s, Battle: Los Angeles puts a modern spin on a tried and true genre.
Paramount had a solid $38.1 million number one debut last weekend with its animated Rango featuring the voice of Johnny Depp. With the typical animated feature second weekend drop in the mid to high 30% range, a second weekend gross of just over $20 million is expected for the family film. Solid mid-week grosses of around $2 million demonstrate continued interest in the film which should wind up with a domestic total in mid-$60 million territory by the end of the weekend.
In a big screen version of the classic fairy tale, Warner Bros.’ Red Riding Hood casts the lovely Amanda Seyfried as the heroine of the film and the always riveting Gary Oldman in yet another villainous turn. With obvious appeal to young females, director Catherine Hardwicke certainly knows the territory having directed the massively successful first installment of the Twilight franchise. Featuring an attractive young cast and enough young lust, romance and adventure to excite the target audience, this Red Riding Hood is likely to generate somewhere between $15 million and $18 million this weekend.
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in Universal’s The Adjustment Bureau which opened last weekend with a solid $21.1 million and should realize a fairly modest drop this weekend that will earn it around $12 million in this weekend’s box office contest. A unique hybrid of romance and sci-fi, the film based on a Philip K. Dick short story, puts a fantastical spin on the classic boy meets girl scenario. Hovering in second place in the mid-week contest with grosses in the $1.5 million range, look for this film to adjust itself into a likely fourth place finish and total gross pushing $40 million by Sunday night.
However, there may be some competition from a red planet called Mars as Disney’s Mars Needs Moms! prepares to stake a claim in the top 5 with a gross of around $10 million. Opening wide on Friday and bolstered by 211 IMAX screens, the 3-D animated family film will take kids and their parents on an otherworldly animated adventure. Featuring the voices of Seth Green and Joan Cusack and produced by Robert Zemeckis, the film will attempt to grab family audiences who until recently had few options for appropriate entertainment at the local movie theater.

If you've had enough of robots in disguise, why not try robots in the ring? DreamWorks Pictures and Walt Disney Studios are bringing a whole new breed of boxing to the masses next year with Real Steel, a science fiction sports flick with a heart of steel! Starring Hugh Jackman as a washed up boxer trying to make a connection with the son he barely knows, the film is directed by Shawn Levy and produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg.
Check out the very first trailer for the movie, which hits theaters in October 2011, below:

Today, Disney unveiled the trailer for its new CG-animated family comedy Mars Needs Moms! The film is based on a novel of the same name by Berkeley Breathed and tells of a young boy named Milo who comes to appreciate his mother a lot more after Martians invade Earth and come to take her away. Produced by Robert Zemeckis through his ImageMovers Digital banner (which was responsible for past hits including The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol), the adventure hits theaters on March 11th 2011.
Check out the trailer below, followed by a couple of images from the film, which features the vocal talents of Seth Green, Joan Cusack and Dan Fogler!
Source: Walt Disney Pictures, Yahoo Movies

UPDATE:
Robert Zemeckis has come out to say that he is most definitely NOT planning to remake The Wizard of Oz. The Wrap reports that Zemeckis' publicist said the news was "completely untrue."
And to this, we say, YES! HOORAY! YIPEE! Because the idea of remaking Oz just flat out sucks. But sadly, just because Zemeckis isn't involved doesn't mean that Warner Brothers won't pursue the remake with another filmmaker. But, I'm hoping that the collective "what the f*ck are you thinking" response from the internet yesterday made WB rethink this idea.
But then again, probably not. Blerg.
Source: The Wrap
Earlier:
Quick! Hide all the classic cinema in your house. For real. Grab Vertigo, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and run! Run as fast as you can, far far away, because it turns out, nothing is safe. Nothing.
Deadline is reporting that Warner Brothers Pictures wants Robert Zemeckis to remake The Wizard of Oz. Yep, you read that correctly. That Wizard of Oz. The same Wizard of Oz that's universally considered one of the greatest films of all time. The same Wizard of Oz that launched Judy Garland's career. The same Wizard of Oz that I spent my childhood watching over and over and over on repeat until my vision blurred and I saw lollipops.
But, such is life in Hollywood, I guess. But what is interesting about this otherwise terrible idea is that Zemeckis will use the original script from the 1939 movie, which could be pretty cool, or really, really, really stupid.
Here's the thing. I don't really understand the point of remakes in general, unless the original is terrible. But with something so perfect -- like Oz -- there's no reason to do it again. Yeah, you could add some pretty special effects, but is CGI what makes a great movie? Of course not. Plus, even though using the exact same script is a fairly interesting idea, it could be disastrous. Remember that awful shot-for-shot remake of Psycho that Gus Van Sant did? Even though he's a talented director, that was awful, and that's from a guy who brought us great films like Milk and Good Will Hunting. Granted, Zemeckis isn't looking to make a shot-for-shot remake, but using the original dialogue is in same ballpark. And I don't think it's a good one.
Bottom line, Oz is a classic. And it's pure. It became a classic before classics existed. And in our world of instant communication and paperless books, there's something to be said about movies that make us feel the way Oz does. A remake, even with someone as talented as Zemeckis at the helm, will do nothing but cast a dark shadow on one of cinema's greatest classics.
Source: Deadline

Directed first "professional" short "The Lift," an 8-minute student film

TV producing debut as one of the co-executive producers of "Tales From the Crypt," an HBO horror anthology series

Served as a producer on the remake of "The House on Haunted Hill"

Reunited with Tom Hanks as producer and director of "Cast Away"; filmed over a stretch of time in 1999-2000 with a break for Hanks to lose weight

Scripted and executive produced "Trespass," helmed by Walter Hill

Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, IL

Summary

With a flair for special effects and an impressive track record for eliciting strong performances, director Robert Zemeckis emerged from the University of Southern California's film school to become a potent filmmaking force in Hollywood. Though his first professional job was writing the script for Steven Spielberg's much-maligned World War II comedy "1941" (1979), Zemeckis staked his reputation as a hit maker with his third directing effort, "Romancing the Stone" (1984), which became a surprise box office success despite low expectations. But it was his next film, "Back to the Future" (1985) that cemented his place in Hollywood as a reliable director of both commercially successful and critically acclaimed movies. By this time, he was earning a reputation for pushing the boundaries of technology onscreen, though often with some criticism for focusing too much on visual effects. Still, Zemeckis continued to churn out hits, including the two "Back to the Future" sequels, as well as the animated-live action hybrid "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988). He achieved esteemed status when he won an Academy Award for his exemplary drama, "Forrest Gump" (1994), which, along with "Back to the Future, became a high water mark in his career. Though he slipped a bit with efforts like "Death Becomes Her" (1992), "Contact" (1997) and "What Lies Beneath" (2000), Zemeckis proved time and again with films like "Cast Away" (2000) and the groundbreaking "Polar Express" (2004) that he was capable of tackling challenging material while remaining commercially viable.

Married July 26, 1980; Worked together in several films including "Romancing the Stone" (1984) and "Death Becomes Her" (1992); Trainor also played the police psychiatrist in the "Lethal Weapon" films; Separated c. 1997; Divorced in 2000

Education

Zemeckis was the first recipient of the University of Southern California's Mary Pickford Alumni Award in 1995.

In October 1998, Zemeckis donated $5 million to USC for the creation of a cutting-edge digital arts studio, named the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts.

With deep emotional underpinnings, it ["Forrest Gump"] is not the sort of frenetic comedy that one would expect from Zemeckis. "One of the first conversations we had about this movie," [actor Tom] Hanks recalls, "was that this movie broke all his rules drilled into him to work on basic storytelling levels. There's no jeopardy. There's no clock running. Bob is a master at explaining the illogical, as in the 'Back to the Future' movies, and having them make sense. But this is the opposite. He had to take this emotional story and put it in the trappings of a special effects epic in a way that was so natural, it served the human elements of the story, instead of how he usually works, where it serves the fantastic elements of the story." – from "Reality Bites Back" by David Kronke, The Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1994